Contribution to the Development of a Platform Enabling Creators to Generate VR Content

Challenge

A U.S.-based tech startup sought to develop an innovative virtual reality (VR) software that would empower creators to produce, share, and consume engaging immersive content for VR consumers through a simple ‘select and play’ experience.

Edvantis was chosen as the partner to facilitate the MVP development within the limited timeframe by ramping up a ready-to-deliver team with a skillset matching the customer’s needs.

Throughout the development process, Edvantis faced several technical challenges:

• The integration and advancement of emerging technologies required the Edvantis team to conduct extensive research and development, including deep dives into engine source code.
• A unique stack of extremely new and rapidly evolving technologies necessitated careful navigation and adoption strategies to meet project requirements.
• Managing and improving a legacy codebase was essential, particularly concerning Universal Scene Description (USD).

Team size and Composition

Being a bootstrapping startup creating a prototype with cutting-edge technologies, the client needed a small team skilled in software best practices and open to learning new technologies. Edvantis found two software developers who addressed functionality and shaped emerging standards.

Solution

Despite all challenges, Edvantis demonstrated resilience and adaptability, contributing significantly to the project through:

• Development of VR interactions with objects and user interfaces
• Implementation of saving and processing 3D scenes and custom data in USD file format utilizing the Usd Importer plugin
• Creation of a MaterialX importer from USD scenes
• Integration of universal hand tracking accompanied by gesture recognition
• Processing skeletal meshes, expressions, and rigs while saving them to USD files

These achievements were critical in taking a customer closer to a functional MVP capable of propelling content creators into the VR space.

Results

The collaboration with Edvantis allowed tech startup to hit essential milestones in developing a robust, functional prototype employing cutting-edge VR technologies by leveraging technical expertise and innovation.

Two skilled Edvantis professionals assigned to the project immersed themselves in researching the optimal implementation patterns of the customer’s product vision within the project’s constraints. Edvantis’ commitment to learning emerging technologies facilitated not only the project’s success but also contributed to establishing a knowledge base to help foster the product and extend the feature set in the future.

The client praised Edvantis for its adaptable project management and proactive development approach. Integrating the Edvantis team into the multi-time zone workflow was particularly noteworthy, enabling seamless collaboration with the in-house professionals.